Newly-released figures from Safe Shelter ACT revealed homeless men were taken in 743 times between April 22 and the end of September, up from 379 times the previous year.

While 2018 saw Safe Shelter expand operations from five nights to seven nights per week, the average number of people taken in every night also increased, rising from 3.32 in 2017 to 4.61.

A total of 95 people were taken in at Safe Shelter's three locations in Ainslie and Braddon during 2018, compared to 60 guests last year.

July was the service's busiest month, seeing an average of six homeless people per night, with people having to be turned away on two occasions due to shelters being over capacity.

Safe Shelter ACT coordinator Richard Griffiths said the rising amount of homeless people in Canberra seeking assistance was concerning.

"The more people that we get, the worse the situation becomes," Mr Griffiths said.

"If you look at the statistics, we would've expected a jump from last year after expanding to seven nights. The first weeks it was on par, and then suddenly from early July, the numbers shot up."

Out of the 95 homeless people who sought assistance with Safe Shelter, 50 of them stayed for a week or less, while between 10 and 15 people returned to Safe Shelter several weeks later.

Mr Griffiths said he was most worried about the 21 people that came through Safe Shelter's doors this year that stayed for several months.

He said many of those people have been unable to find accommodation away from crisis services.

"The main lesson for us is guests who stay with us for a long time are not being picked up by the welfare services," Mr Griffiths said.

"We've have people come and stay for several months with Safe Shelter because there is no way of getting out of Safe Shelter and into a more permanent place."

Several of the guests who used the crisis service during the colder months were refugees, which Mr Griffiths said often had more difficulty in accessing support due to language or cultural barriers.

A small number of guests also came to Canberra for personal reasons or to find work but were unable to find affordable accommodation in a short amount of time.

Following the end of Safe Shelter's services for 2018, Mr Griffiths said more support was needed for Canberra's homeless population throughout the year, and not just in the coldest months.

He said more walk-in services would need to be made available.

"The first part of any strategy has to be to get homeless people off the streets as quickly as possible so they don't become entrenched in homelessness," he said.

"Once people are on the streets for a couple of weeks, they're likely to be suffering themselves."

A final report on Safe Shelter's operations for 2018 is being prepared, while plans are under way for services for next year's winter.